The Beyonder is an immensely powerful extradimensional entity of disputed origin. Virtually omnipotent in his realm, the Beyonder has striven on occasion to be mankind's both greatest savior and enemy in his quests to understand human nature.

Origin

The Beyonder was originally from an infinite realm beyond the Marvel Multiverse, called the Beyond-realm, and was the sum of everything outside the multiverse (our multiverse was a drop in the sea compared to the Beyond-realm). It became self aware and formed a being of immeasurable power. (He was originally described as millions of times more powerful than the entire multiverse.)

The Beyonder first became aware of our universe when the Molecule Man gained his powers through an atomic accident. This accident was of such importance for all of existence that it pierced through from our universe to "his," creating a pinhole through which he could peer through. After observing for some time, he decided to precipitate the first Secret Wars, in which he teleported numerous heroes and villains from Earth to battle each other. He created his own " Battleworld" from several planets and a Denver Suburb. He offered the victors anything their hearts desired. Ultimately Dr. Doom stole his power, and the Beyonder had to reclaim it. After observing humans, and ultimately interacting with them, the Beyonder still did not feel fulfilled.

The Beyonder decided to come to earth and spend time among us. He interacted with many heroes and villains and cosmic forces in an attempt to better understand the meaning and root of desire. His frustration with this attempt led him to become more and more erratic and dangerous to the rest of the multiverse. In the end he paid the ultimate price, and was killed by the Molecule Man.

Creation

Character Evolution

The Beyonder has been the source of many retcons and reinventions over the years. The creator of the character, Jim Shooter, on the topic of the character, says "We introduced the Beyonder was studying these beings, us, that he had discovered." He also stated that Beyonder was from a whole different multiverse. " Where he existed he was everything and everything was him, in a sense he was like God before there was Genesis. The an event,which we will discover later,opened a hole into our universe,and he saw Earth. For the Beyonder it was like when the Dutch inventor Van Leeuwenhoek, looked through his microscope and discovered little paramecia swimming in a drop of water. It was a shocking revelation -- a whole new world of existence was revealed. This is similar to what happened when Beyonder saw Earth."

Marvel's next editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco felt that Beyonder was too powerful, his power became the end of him as Marvel deconstructed his abilities and cast him as a hoax. This is the first, or Cosmic Cube, retcon. The Beyonder became a much lesser super being, and his previous super feats were all, or at least partially, in his mind.

Later it was decided to further retcon the character making it so that the Beyonder was both an Inhuman AND a Mutant.

Major Story Arcs

Secret Wars I

The Beyonder's first appearance

The Beyonder's first appearance was in the story Secret Wars I. He placed several large space station-like platforms on Earth, and a number of Earth heroes went inside them. They were then transported to another station millions of miles away in space. Unsure of what was going on, they watched a galaxy be destroyed before their eyes, and a planet was formed from the spare parts of other planets. They saw another station, filled with super villains, including the Molecule Man and Galactus--the Beyonder thus showed his power right from the start by being able to teleport such immense beings against their wills. A great light then shone out of a hole in space, and infamously said, "I am from Beyond! Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!" This statement was the prologue to a war between the two groups, as the villains attempted to fulfill the Beyonder's mission, and the heroes simply tried to return home.

However, the immediate effect was that Galactus sensed the Beyonder's power, and desired it, for he could tell that it would be able to take away his hunger to destroy worlds. He flew out of the ship (pursued by Dr. Doom) and tried to attack the source of the light. However, he and Doom were, as Captain America said, "swatted back like flies!" Galactus was rendered unconscious by the Beyonder's defenses, once again showing his limitless power. The two space stations were then sent down to the planet Battleworld. The heroes and villains found bases, and began a long series of skirmishes.

For a long time, the Beyonder was not seen again directly during Secret Wars I: he had set up his experiment, and now simply observed as the subjects interacted. He remained a totally mysterious force to the people on Battleworld, hero and villain. Galactus was apparently unable to leave, but summoned his worldship, Taa II, to the skies above Battleworld. (Others, like the Enchantress, also tried to leave, but were unable to pierce the barrier set up by the Beyonder.) Galactus planned, as a last resort, to destroy Taa II instead of Battleworld, and absorb its unspeakably extensive energy. However, just as Galactus destroyed Taa II, Dr. Doom was able to steal the resulting energy and possess it for himself. Galactus was left in a coma, and Doom gained Galactus' god-like powers, becoming largely omniscient and omnipotent. Doom could now fulfill the Beyonder's challenge and slay his enemies, but what would be the point? There was now nothing left for him to desire...except the challenge of defeating the Beyonder himself. When he had entered the Beyond-realm with Galactus at the very beginning of Secret Wars, his armor had analyzed the Beyonder's energies. He was now able to use that analysis to change his armor in such a way that would help him defeat the Beyonder. Doom said that while he remained David to the Beyonder's Goliath, he now had a sling that could help him find his enemy's weakness.

Fighting Doom

Doom then entered the Beyond-realm and attacked the Beyonder. Their battle nearly blew out the nearby sun like a candle, and severely buffeted Battleworld. Doom found that his stolen power was not enough; the Beyonder was beating him. This was the first time the Beyonder was actually "seen" on panel; he appeared simply as a omnipresent energy surrounding Doom. The Beyonder neutralized Doom's power, and started to vivisect him like a lab rat, to learn more about him. And yet Doom remained Doom, and his will was indomitable. While his flesh was being peeled away layer by layer, he managed to somehow will his hand to touch his armor (which had been lifted away from him), and activate his "sling," thereby defeating the Beyonder and taking his power.

Doom was unsure what to do with his newfound omnipotence, which was even greater than it was when he had Galactus' power. He was much more peaceful at first; when the Molecule Man attacked him, Doom did not kill him, but instead took away Reece's self-imposed mental blocks, allowing Reece to reach his full potential as the most powerful being in the multiverse other than the Beyonder. Reece himself became much less angry and frustrated now that he had come into his own, and soon left Battleworld with most of the other villains. Doom, however, began to wrestle with his new limitless nature, and started to become unstable. Meanwhile, the Beyonder managed to come into our universe as a small spark of light. He encountered the Hulk, and temporarily took him over. Then he left the Hulk and entered Spider-Woman, and finally left her and entered Klaw. Klaw had been acting as Doom's confidant and court fool, and using him now, the Beyonder was able to continue to push Doom toward instability. The heroes attacked, and Doom, frustrated, let loose an enormous bolt of power that nearly destroyed all of reality. Unable to control and trust himself enough to battle the heroes on his own, he gave Klaw enough power to "blacken ten thousand suns." Klaw then went out to fight the heroes. However, the Beyonder had ulterior motives for wanting this power. He did attack the heroes, but then slipped back inside, trailing Captain America. Cap attacked Doom, and Doom easily disintegrated him. However, Klaw recreated Rogers, who attacked Doom again. Doom disintegrated him again in turn, and the cycle repeated itself. Doom eventually broke, believing he had lost control of his powers, and the Beyonder left Klaw and took his powers back from Doom. He then sent Doom and Klaw away, and disappeared himself, never to reappear again in this story.

The Beyonder was so powerful that the fallout of this conflict left a wish-fulfillment-like effect on the planet, allowing many heroes to regain things they had lost: Captain America was able to recreate his broken shield, among other effects. Mr. Fantastic was eventually able to create a teleportation device to send all the heroes back home, thus ending the first Secret War.

Secret Wars II

Amalgam form

The Beyonder's curiosity about our plane and planet continued, and eventually decided he wanted to know more. He returned to our reality, and specifically to Earth. He first visited Owen Reece and Marsha Rosenberg (Volcana), since the Molecule Man was one of the only beings anywhere near his power. He appeared in an amalgam form, based on the many heroes that fought on Battleworld. He was docile and said he desired "to understand." This was the beginning of his philosophical journey, and of his symbiotic relationship with Reece. Reece said that it was important that he saw the difference between knowledge and understanding, and that he believed that experience was the best teacher. Rosenberg noted that Los Angeles was a place you could experience everything, so the Beyonder left with their blessings. The Beyonder would often return to their apartment to discuss his recent experiences and philosophical quandries.

I desire experience!

He next took on Reece's form, and appeared in a random window in L.A. This turned out to be the office of Stewart Cadwell, a TV script writer. The Beyonder once again said he desired to understand, and the petulant Cadwell filled him in on his cynical and anti-Hollywood ideology. The Beyonder, once again sensing the possibility for an experiment, turned Cadwell into Thundersword. As Thundersword, he began to wreck various Hollywood studios and other businesses. It took the combined might of the X-MenNew Mutants, and some Avengers to stop him. At the end of the battle, Rachel Summers psychically sensed the invisible presence of the Beyonder, who was watching it all. Having been noticed, he made himself visible. He then looked at the surrounding heroes, and Magik in particular. He reached inside her, and pulled out her Darkchilde persona for the first time. In shock, she teleported herself and several others away. The other heroes, who didn't see exactly what happened, thought the Beyonder had done something to them, and Wolverine attacked, slashing his face and torso. The Beyonder, however, just stood there staring at him. Lila Cheney teleported the X-Men away in order to avoid any retribution from him. The Beyonder stood thinking on his own for a while, now understanding how the experience of being in a fight and being hurt was quite different from observing others being in a fight--experience was indeed the best teacher. He turned invisible and followed Captain America as he left the fight scene.

Rachel mind-melds with Beyonder

Perhaps simultaneously, he invisibly observed the New Mutants, who had since returned from Limbo. Rachel was occasionally able to feel his presence, but couldn't get a lock on him. He was at this time still wearing the face of the Molecule Man. While watching them, his attention was drawn to Dazzler singing at a mutant battle arena--his first contact with her. He then appeared to Rachel, Cannonball, and Magik. Illyana wanted to attack him, but Rachel stopped her and instead tried to psychically bond with him in an attempt to communicate. Her mind was opened to his infinity and majesty, which she felt must be like her mother's experience as Dark Phoenix. Having apparently learned all he wanted to know, the Beyonder then left abruptly.

He was also invisibly observing Captain America, who was visiting the West Coast Avengers and then battling Armadillo and Dr. Malus. Impressed with Rogers' physical abilities and affect on those around him, he decided to take on Rogers' body's form for his next physical incarnation, and became blonde and blue-eyed.

In his first human form

He explored New York City in a naive fashion, trying to replicate basic human experiences like eating and wearing clothing, but inevitably made innocent mistakes, like eating a soda bottle along with its contents.

It was around this time that he ran into Rachel again, this time in a deli in New York. She once again attempted to talk to him, but he left. He was still observing her though, and was interested in her power, saying that, out of those he had encountered so far, she was the being who had the potential to be the most like him. He later appeared in front of her, Professor Xavier, and Magneto. When Rachel tried to mindlink them all, he unwittingly set off a trap set by some anti-mutant students, which badly hurt the three X-Men. Rachel then wanted revenge against the students, but Magneto persuaded her to stop. The Beyonder was puzzled by their actions, and once again took especial note of Rachel.

He later ran across Peter Parker, and recognizing him from Battleworld, followed him home. He suddenly appeared in front of Parker, scaring him at first. He launched right into his standard set of questions, asking about understanding and experience. After finally understanding who he was talking to, Peter tried to explain, but ultimately recommended Reed Richards as a better person to talk to. The Beyonder then left after using Parker's toilet. Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four were in the midst of a battle against the Hate Monger and Psycho Man when the Beyonder appeared and started asking questions. Richards realized who he was and tried to pay attention, but there were too many distractions, including Sue Storm's desire for revenge for what the villains had done to her (they had turned her into Malice). The Beyonder left to seek answers elsewhere. Now he appeared in front of a department store window, and transferred a blue suit from a mannikin to himself. A bag lady saw him do it, and reprimanded him while she simultaneously explained to him how to adjust its tailoring so it would fit better on him. She was apparently completely unsurprised to see him use his powers, and because of her lifetime of hard experience began to tell him many of the hard truths about the world. Right then, some punks tried to mug them. They beat up the Beyonder, but he didn't mind because he liked learning from experiences like this. He was now, however, learning about the importance of money to the people of Earth. He teleported himself to the offices of Heroes for Hire, and, upon finding that Power Man and Iron Fist were not there, brought them forward through time to see him. They were understandably shocked, and Cage attacked. The Beyonder simply walked out the window, and Cage jumped out to get him. Cage was still angry, but Rand calmed him down, and Cage eventually went on to explain more about the importance of time and money. As thanks for their help, the Beyonder turned their entire building to gold, which then collapsed under its own weight. The Beyonder once again left in a flash of light.

The Beyonder later met a street walker named Toots. They made conversation, and after she explained her profession using street jargon he didn't understand, he gave her an ingot of gold. She was scared, and he left. He found a nearby seedy hotel and got a room, sleeping on the floor. However, the hotel desk operator had notified Vinnie, a local gangster, about his anomalous presence. Vinnie showed up with some of his gang, including Toots, who had since shown him the bar of gold. The Beyonder told him his story, and Vinnie, believing him, sensed a business opportunity in his apparent lack of understanding of our world.

Working for the mob

He had Toots watch over him while he got his gang network into action. This was only the first of many relationships the Beyonder had with Earth women, who often saw him as very appealing. Vinnie used the Beyonder to increase his success in his criminal enterprises, taking care of the competition, healing prostitutes of their STDs, making more gold, and even curing his son of dyslexia and helping his wife lose weight. Vinnie, in turn, began to really like the Beyonder, whom he called Frank. He gave Frank the services of a room of prostitutes (making Toots jealous), and over the course of weeks taught him all of the everyday conventions and information that he needed to know to really understand normal life on Earth. While the various heroes he had met had tried to answer the big questions, Vinnie taught him how to eat, get dressed, and even adopt a sense of humor. He also began to learn about the importance of risk: one time he tried to fix a horse race for Vinnie, but Vinnie was crestfallen because that would take all the sport and fun out of life. Frank became obsessed with Earth gadgets at this time as well, buying or making hordes of Cuisinarts, motorcycles, and the like. This is the time when his personality really began to take on most of his recognizable personality characteristics. This is also when he took on his new and now standard physical appearance as a heavily muscled man with dark Jheri-Curled hair and very mod '80s clothes. Ultimately, however, Vinnie realized that Frank was getting too big for Vinnie's small pond, and he needed to get out on his own. Frank was, in a sense, all grown up now.

Controls the world except Owie

The Beyonder thus began his own criminal empire, not because of any inherent evil in his nature, but just because that's all he knew about from Vinnie. He began a life of vice, gaining weight until he realized how bad it looked. He started to take over other arenas of power, including the Kingpin's crime syndicate, and then moved on to take over the United States from the president. He followed the path to power logically, and decided to simply take over all the life on Earth (except the Molecule Man, whom he called a "special case," but said he could take care of him later if necessary). Even this was not enough, and he took over literally every molecule on the planet. The Molecule Man noticed this when he saw that the molecules belonging to Marsha (and the popcorn they were eating) were being controlled. After liberating Marsha, he decided it was just a phase and didn't bother to interfere further. Frank, however, was not feeling any better now that he was in control. He went to talk to Vinnie about it, but all he could do, now that he was controlled, was offer platitudes of obeisance. He went on to Toots, who was the same as Vinnie at first. Finally he released her from his control, at which point she told him how his respect for her had led her to leave the life of the streets and get a real job. She was so much happier now, and it was all because of him--but pointedly, he understood, she loved him for what he had given her emotionally, and not because he was the overlord of the world. People needed to be free to learn and take risks, just like the horse race. Having learned his lesson, the Beyonder then released the rest of the world from his control.

Beyonder in his super-suit

He then went to Avengers Mansion to talk to the Avengers, but Jarvis told him they were in space. He teleported to their location and ran into Firelord, but Firelord passed out from his injuries during his fight with Nebula and her army. The Beyonder wanted to help, so he mimicked the super-hero costumes he had seen, and created a new super-suit for himself. He teleported into Nebula's ship, and, thinking he was helping the Avengers, teleported her away from the scene. Once the Avengers arrived, however, they were angry with him, because they wanted to capture her, not banish her. Confused once again, the Beyonder left. When they returned to Earth, Captain America and the Wasp were talking with a government official about what they experienced when the Beyonder showed up in his shiny metal "superhero" costume. Understanding that they were angry with him, and believing that they liked to settle conflict through action, he led them on a chase, during which time he allowed them to attack him. However, unhappy with his physical inexperience in fighting, he left. He soon appeared next to Hercules and Black Knight at Project Pegasus. Hercules tried to put him in a wrestling hold, but the Beyonder knocked him clean out of the mountain. He then has a sword fight with the Black Knight, during which the Knight stuck him square in the stomach with his sword. The Beyonder was unfazed and left, pondering the tension between his eagerness for new experiences and the warning of his old experiences that knives can hurt! He later reappeared at Avengers Mansion. Herc punched him through several floors of the building, causing a fire. The Beyonder put out the fire, and the Wasp offered him membership in the Avengers, thinking that at least that way they could keep an eye on him. He was interested in the offer, but felt that there was too much else to experience in the universe, so he left again.

He then decided to try to take over the world in a more "limited" fashion than he had before: by doing it legally. He appeared in Matt Murdock's legal office and said he wanted to hire them to help him legitimately control the Earth. Foggy was in favor of it, since the Beyonder offered them a million dollar retainer (which he legally obtained as salvage from a wrecked ship), and started to work on it. Murdock was against it, but the Beyonder gave him a special form of payment: he gave him back his vision. At first he was ecstatic, but he eventually realized that his sight was so precious that he might lose his sense of integrity in order to keep it, so he asked the Beyonder to take it back, and take them off the case, which the Beyonder then did.

Around this time he also started exploring what Marvel was then calling the "multiverse": all the dimensions outside of the normal universe, such as Asgard, Mephisto's realm, the Microverse, the Dark Dimension, and eventually the Crossroads, a nexus of realities. He found Bruce Banner there in near-suicidal despair. Once again he was puzzled by the complexity of human emotion.

The ladies love him

He decided to limit himself in order to enjoy life since reality and his mind were indistinguishable; by doing this he showed some emotional progress. As he matured, he discovered love. This happened through a somewhat disastrous path. First he had an affair with a beautiful woman named Sharon Ing. She fell for him, but he didn't really care. He flew off in a car (he was a fan of flying cars) and thought about his various plans and experiments. For instance, he had revived Algrim the Elf as Kurse, in order to see what would happen if Kurse fulfilled his desire to kill Thor. The mystery of desire was still at the forefront of his mind: as an omnipotent being, he couldn't understand what it meant to want something and not be able to get it (ironically, the one thing he was unable to do was understand desire). Some USAF jets attacked him as he flew by in the car, and he switched vehicles with one of them, taking the jet to Owen and Marsha's apartment. There, he asked about love. The Molecule Man, not exactly a ladies' man, was hard put to it to explain, but he said that as a result of his relationship with Marsha, he had finally understood it. True love was when there was a free and limitless exchange of love between both partners; it couldn't be a "business deal" where there were other obligations. Her love had helped him overcome his own self-hate, and enabled him to love her back more freely. But, he warned, "love gone wrong can be dangerous--even to guys like us!" The Beyonder decided to return to Sharon Ing, but found that she had killed herself over him. He revived her, but felt that she wanted a "business deal" kind of relationship, since she loved what he did for her (although she really meant she loved how he made her feel). Right in front of her, he search the world for a more suitable partner (including both men and women; he decided, however, that he had gotten used to being a man), and settled on Dazzler. Ing later on walked out and gained back her self-respect.

His approach to courting Dazzler

The Beyonder tried to court Dazzler by zapping her around to a number of exotic places throughout space, but she reacted with anger and fear, not knowing who he was or what he was trying to do! Finally she calmed down enough to where he was able to explain, and they had some more natural conversations. He visited Alpha Flight and took a ring from Shaman's bag for her as a gift. He also pulled Talisman out of the bag for Shaman as payment. (His appearance happened to stymie an attack on Alpha Flight by Omega Flight.) When he returned, Dazzler was leaving. He tried again to convince her to love him (when the ring didn't spark her interest, he just tossed it away). He tried giving her fame and success in show business, and he faked a fight with the Avengers to make her feel sympathy for him, but none of it worked. He was simply being far too artificial in his approach, and didn't understand. Finally he gave her half of his power (making her more powerful than anyone else in existence), but it didn't matter. She rejected him, and his power, and fell to Earth from high in the sky, dying when she hit the ground. In his anger, and in a moment that was both a flashback to Secret Wars I and a foreshadowing to the end of Secret Wars II, the Beyonder let loose a bolt of energy that destroyed a far-flung galaxy. He finally calmed down, and revived Blaire. At first, he manipulated her into loving him, but quickly saw this was not the answer, and released her. Reece's warning had come true, and the Beyonder now knew the emotional despair of rejection.

Has superhero costume when fighting alongside Dazzler

However, he did not completely abandon her. Giving her a tour of a mall from the air, he said he would join her crusade of public awareness for mutants, but she said she would rather do it on her own, so he brought her back to the place from where he had taken her originally, and they parted on good terms. She walked to a local bar, and three mutant bikers started a fight. They normally had low levels of power, but those powers became amped as they got near her. The Beyonder appeared again, this time garbed as a super hero, and helped her fight the bikers, whose powers kept increasing. The Beyonder intentionally limited his power to that of a "normal" super hero, and enjoyed the complexity and pressure of battle. Dazzler eventually realized that he had stimulated the situation by amping the bikers' powers, and made him stop the fight. He left after fixing the damage from the fight.

Still pondering the subject of desire, he happened upon Rick Jones, Brandy Clark, and the child Cindy Adams. They were all living in a cabin, bonded by mutual unhappiness. Jones was dying of cancer; Clark missed her lover Rom and her previous incarnation as the Space Knight Starshine, and Adams was tortured by the presence of a Dire Wraith in her mind. He decided to try another experiment, and told them he could fulfill their desires. They agreed enthusiastically, and he cured Jones' cancer, turned Clark back into Starshine, and erased the Dire Wraith from Adams' mind. However, while they were happy with the results, they soon wished that they had asked for even more" for everyone to be cured of cancer, for Rom to be restored to humanity, for Adams' parents to be brought back to life. The Beyonder offered to do all of this as well, but then they began to worry about unforeseen consequences. Eventually, they decided to bring Adams' parents back, feeling that that such a thing could not be wrong. Jones also kept his gift of health, and Clark was transported to Rom's side, once again as a human.

The Beyonder next walked along a train track in a melancholy mood, still obsessed with his failed relationship with Dazzler. A train came along behind him, and he "zapped" it with his fingers shaped into a child's "gun" position. The train flew apart into all its component pieces. He allowed the passengers to land softly, then continued on his walk. One of the passengers, Tabitha, ran up and started to walk with him. She thought he was a mutant, and said she was one herself. This was the first appearance of Boom Boom. She was running away from home because her father had beaten her upon finding out she was a mutant. The Beyonder told her his story, and they were both glad to be with someone else who shared in their unhappiness. Boom Boom shared a game that she played whenever she got depressed: whenever something bad happened, you got 10 points. Whoever got the most, won. Unfortunately some of her friends had been even worse off, and taken the easy way out, and committed suicide. The Beyonder left, saying that he was above such human emotions, and went back to the Beyond-realm. This was the Beyond-realm's first appearance on panel, other than his fight with Doom in Secret Wars I. At home, he started to get bored, and made a bunch of his favorite gadgets, then pictures of Dazzler. He realized that he was still far too attached to our world. Then all of a sudden, one of Boom Boom's time bombs went off; she didn't want him to forget her. He came back to Earth, found her trying to hitch a ride, and picked her up. She thought he would be mad, but instead he fixed the bruises her father gave her. He was glad that she made him realize he wasn't ready to take the easy way out and quit like her friends had. He drove her to the X-Men's school, since that's what she had been looking for earlier. However, when they opened the door, they ignored her and tried to attack the Beyonder. Boom Boom walked away in despair and set a huge time bomb, calling out to the Beyonder that she was going to kill herself; she said she had 10 points, and she won the contest of depression. He intervened, and saved her.

Beyonder tempts Boom Boom with other possibilitiesFighting Celestials

They took a ride in his flying car out into space to cheer her up. They went to the home world of the Celestials, which was like a boardwalk in which all kinds of aliens had sent up shop, hawking souvenirs to tourists that had come to see the space gods. Boom Boom remarked that they didn't seem to worried about him, and he said they were, they just didn't show it. Then he decided to show off, and started a fight with them. He beat them all easily in a brief fight. During the battle, he famously said, "The trouble is, lesser beings can't really perceive the bulk of the action--the billions of feints, thrusts, and parries per second--or the countless levels, besides the physical, upon which this fight, however one-sided, is taking place!" This display of power and aggression scared Boom Boom, however, and the Beyonder tried to make her happy. Once again he used the too-manipulative approach he tried with Dazzler, giving her gifts: making her beautiful, older, without powers. She rejected it all, and asked him to take her home.

When she got back to Earth, she called the Avengers, who got together to attack him. Meanwhile, he just got in a deeper funk, listening to Dazzler records. He knew he needed a friend like Tabitha. When he appeared to see her, however, she placed a time bomb on him and ran away. Then the Avengers attacked, but to no avail--he just lay there, listless, ignoring their attacks. Finally they stopped, realizing they could do nothing, and he just walked away, saying that he still knew he couldn't take the easy way out, and that he had 10 points...he won.

Lets himself get beat up by Thing

The Beyonder was driven into complete despair, and took to drinking. It should be noted that of course alcohol could only affect him if he wanted to let it. In the same way, when he later takes heroin with Cloak and Dagger, it has no affect until he decides to let it affect him, and when he decides to stop it, it stops. So in this case, the Beyonder wanted to have the experience of going on an alcoholic bender, and expressly limited himself so that such a thing could happen. He met a Unlimited Class Wrestling promotor at a bar as he downed Heinekens. Having nothing else to do, he decided to go along with the man. The UCWF tested his strength, and unsurprisingly he passed easily, lifting five times what the Thing lifted. However, the ease with which he lifted it made the head of the UCFW actually want to keep the Beyonder out of the Federation, because he was worried that he'd kill their normal wrestlers. However, the Thing found out, and insisted that the Beyonder be allowed to join, and that they wrestle as soon as possible: he wanted revenge for what happened to him on Battleworld. The Beyonder was in such a deep depression that he was going to let the Thing kill him, but ultimately the Thing refused to give him the death blow, and let him live. The Beyonder then returned to his original bar to do more drinking.

However, his despair led him to a need for enlightenment, and he sought out Dr. Strange. He walked in to his Sanctum Sanctorum while Strange was out, ripped off the cover of the Orb of Agamotto (effortlessly negating the spells by Agamotto himself), and found him in the Dark Dimension with Clea. The experience apparently proved too enlightening in itself, and he ran away. Strange found out what happened, and found him in a bar--one of the very ones he himself used to drink at after he had his accident and could no longer do surgery. The Beyonder begged him for enlightenment. Strange wanted to know more about him, and peered inside him with the Eye of Agamotto, where he saw his true self. Even though Strange had seen so many mysteries and beings of power, and had "stood unafraid before Eternity himself," he recoiled at the sight of the Beyonder's true nature and power. He realized that he "could erase the universe with a thought." But, because he was limiting himself, and because he had intentionally gotten himself drunk, Strange realized that he had a chance to ensnare him with illusion, and perhaps take his danger away from the multiverse forever. Unsure of the morality of such an act, he decided to put the Beyonder through the same experiences he had when he was a drunk, showing him the seediness of alcoholism, the enlightenment of the Ancient One, and the treachery of Baron Mordo, when Mordo originally tried to kill the Ancient One. In this illusion, the Beyonder tried to stop Mordo, just as Dr. Strange had once done himself, thus proving that the Beyonder, like Strange, had some goodness still inside him. Because of this, Strange decided to let him out of the illusion. He told the Beyonder that he must fight for what is right, and that such a fight must involve sacrifice. The Beyonder took his message seriously, and indeed it was an experience that he recalled several times throughout the rest of his time on Earth.

In one of his first attempts to help others, he became curious about an incident in which a child killed himself by setting himself aflame, trying to be like the Human Torch. The Torch, tremendously afflicted by the event, became unsure of his role as a hero. The Beyonder took Storm on a tour of the boy's sad past, showing him that his heroic exploits had in fact provided the only bright spots in his short life.

Later, as he walked through some slums, he met some heroin dealers. Since he was still somewhat naive, and often intentionally limited his awareness of the world in order to experience things more like a true human would, they were able to draw him into their tenement, telling him that they could provide him with true happiness through their drug. In fact, they intended to give him an overdose and rob him. Cloak and Dagger followed, and took down the dealers, but not before they had given him the heroin. Angry at Cloak and Dagger for stopping the drug dealers, who he still believed were good, he used their powers to cancel out the powers of the other, turning them both human again. They were both actually thankful at this. He then let the heroin affect him, and was stunned at how horrible the experience was. He then stopped the effects, and decided to punish the dealers instead, erasing them--and all other drug dealers--from existence. While Cloak and Dagger had in the past acted as judge, jury, and executioners for many drug dealers, they realized now that this was going too far, and that perhaps some of them might have reformed, if they had been given more mercy. After listening to Cloak and Dagger's arguments, the Beyonder agreed, and brought the drug dealers all back to life, then left.

He finally turned his life around and decided to take a more positive, proactive approach. He built an enormous tower filled with his favorite gadgets in Sparta, Illinois. One of the local residents, Dave, a down-on-his luck local reporter, saw it and ran to see what was going on. He went inside and the Beyonder explained his new plan. He was going to be a champion for life, and basically be an even more super super hero. He explained that Dr. Strange had helped him see the light. The Beyonder had been drinking, and Strange could have possibly zapped him away in a pocket dimension and kept him drunk and out of everyone's way, but instead he had acted as a role model, showing how the Beyonder could be a champion of life like Strange. He would fight against problems big and small, from muggers to tidal waves to cosmic forces like those of Mephisto.

One such matter had to do with Power Pack. Much earlier, the Beyonder had revived Kurse as an experiment, but then had largely forgotten about him. Kurse had finally reached New York, and randomly happened to hurt Margaret Power. The Beyonder brought her, and then later the Power children, to a hospital. However, since he was limiting himself, he didn't cure her. Angry at Kurse, Power Pack dropped a building on him. Even this could not stop him, and he emerged still bent on killing Thor. He finally found Thor and attacked. The Beyonder, observing this battle, considered taking away Kurse's power, since he no longer really cared about the experiment. After watching for a while, his interest was picqued, due to Thor's decision to use his belt of strength, thereby negating Kurse's advantage. Deciding to see how far this would go, he increased Kurse's power once again. Beta Ray Bill and Power Pack came up, and they were able to stop Kurse by having Energizer drain the energy from their hammers and shoot it all out as an energy ball. Impressed, the Beyonder appeared and asked what he should do with Kurse now. Thor suggested that he send him to Hel, where he could gain revenge on Malekith (who originally let him fall to his death) and on Hela, who had injured Thor's face. The Beyonder liked the irony of this, and did it. He then restored the power of Thor and Beta Ray Bill's hammers, and left.

Destroys three planets in the Microverse

In another example, he went to the Microverse. There, he partnered with Scion, and aided the inhabitants of a planet by restoring their destroyed homes and food sources. He also cured Princess Mari and Huntarr. Then he and Scion decided that they must take more drastic steps to help the Microverse as a whole. A wave of negative energy was sweeping through the Microverse, and would destroy it all unless stopped. The Beyonder thus destroyed three planets (with a hundred billion inhabitants) with the wave of his hand, creating a firebreak that would temporarily stop the energy wave. The Micronauts couldn't agree with this cold-blooded tactic, and attacked, killing Scion, but they were unable to persuade him to bring the planets back. They then left to try to stop the wave permanently. The Beyonder resurrected Scion and returned to our universe.

Later, he visited Power Man, Iron Fist, and Falcon, who were discussing their building that he had turned to gold. He brought them to his new headquarters, a giant floating building in the ocean, complete with TVs that monitored everyone on Earth. The Beyonder, in love with gadgets as always, thought it was great, but the heroes were worried that this was too Orwellian. Not really caring, Beyonder brought them all back to New York, where he and Cage went off for lunch at a soul food restaurant. The Beyonder ordered fish and collard greens, and the other diners, who are black, thought he seemed out of place (too white). Cage explained the problem to Beyonder, who made himself black in order to better fit in. This, obviously, did not work, and the diners got in a shouting match with him, ultimately punching him in the face, at which point Cage stepped in and beat them up. Captain Hero stopped by, looking for Iron Fist. The Beyonder sensed him on his ocean base; he was there as part of a SHIELD mission to destroy it, but is now unsure if it's the right thing to do. The Beyonder teleported Captain Hero to the base, and he and Iron Fist managed to stop the SHIELD attack. The Beyonder showed up and destroyed the base himself, complaining that the humans fear everyone more powerful than themselves, and saying that they're all paranoid. He leaves them all floating in the ocean in a fit of pique.

Owen Reece saw a newspaper story about his new approach, and started to get nervous. He felt that the Beyonder should be more like him, and just settle down to enjoy the small things in life, like his life with Marsha. However, the Watcher suddenly came to talk to him. Reece was annoyed, and didn't want to talk to Uatu, but Marsha did. Uatu explained that the Watchers had all come together and voted to break their oath against inaction for the first time, because the Beyonder posed such a threat to the multiverse. Uatu importuned Reece to help them, but he refused, he just didn't want to get involved in such matters any more.

Meanwhile the Beyonder kept doing heroic deeds, and Captain America and Mr. Fantastic came to see him. They felt that if the Beyonder took care of everything, people would get lazy and wouldn't take care of themselves any more. But the Beyonder felt that he had to keep doing something, he needed a role in the universe. Dave the reporter, who had started to work for the Beyonder in his tower, intervened. He said the Earth heroes were just jealous, and that the Beyonder would be the greatest hero of them all--that only Death itself had anything to fear from the Beyonder, and the heroes certainly had no reason to worry.

Kills death

This gave the Beyonder a new idea--a way in which he could fulfill his role as a champion of life in a way that no one else could ever achieve. Other heroes could stop muggers or tidal waves, but only he could stop the named Death. When he decided to do this, the other cosmic forces like Mephisto immediately felt great fear at the way this would upset the existing order of the universe. The Beyonder, however, summoned Death to a restaurant, where he poured a cup of his godly power, which would destroy her. Mephisto suddenly attacked with demons, but sadly to no avail. Then the other powers of the entire multiverse showed up to beg him to stop. These included a A Celestial, Eternity, Order and Chaos, the Living Tribunal, Uatu, the Gardener, the In-Betweener, and others. Even their assembled power couldn't stop him directly (even though he had already poured a great portion of his power in the cup). Instead they had to just ask him not to kill Death. Once again Dave intervened, and said that they were just looking at things from the perspective of unfeeling concepts, and that Death was most important to living things like him. The cosmic forces just couldn't understand why this new goal was so important. He gave the cup to Death, and she drank it. The Molecule Man realized what happened, and teleported himself to the scene in anger. As one of the Beyonder's only true confidants, he could speak to him in a way that the others could not. He was also one of the only beings who bridged both the world of mortals and cosmic beings. He said that with death gone, there was no longer any point to life. Now humans would spend their lives as abstractly as the cosmic forces; they would no longer care about anything, just as Cap and Richards had said earlier about the Beyonder's less dramatic kind of previous care-taking. Reece left in a fit of pique after saying his piece, and Dave finally understood. He told the Beyonder to bring back Death, but the Beyonder said that the only way to do it would be if someone agreed to die and become the new Death. Dave volunteered, seeing in this act the chance to do something important with his own life, and the Beyonder killed him, resurrecting him as the new avatar of Death. The whole scene frustrated the Beyonder, who once again lost a hard-won friend. He destroyed his tower in Sparta and decided to cast about for a new role in life.

After the death of Death, the Beyonder increasingly began to become the target of conflict on a large scale. Mephisto was particularly fearful and enraged. He created a machine called Beyondersbane to kill the Beyonder. He had collected the power that the Beyonder used to kill Death; this would make up the bulk of the power of the machine. But he also made plans with the other cosmic entities of the universe; they would share their power, so Beyondersbane would also have all the power in the universe in addition to the Beyonder's spent power. The entities that were shown to have shared their power included Chaos and Order, the Gardener (and presumably the other Elders), Galactus, the Living Tribunal, Eon, the Celestials, and the In-Betweener. In addition, Eternity itself would be the gunner for the weapon. The machine would only be able to hold the Beyonder's power for a short time, so Mephisto put together a plan to trigger it. He made a deal with 99 super villains: he would give them immense rewards if they attacked the Beyonder. However, unknown to them, if they touched him, they and the Beyonder and a third of the universe would be destroyed! Or at least so Mephisto hoped; even with all this power, he wasn't sure it could kill the Beyonder.

The Beyonder, however, was not paying attention to any of this. He had withdrawn into himself and was meditating on a South Seas island to find out his role in the universe. A man from a nearby island happened to come by and was inspired by the Beyonder's "think system," and told others. Soon, numerous people were coming to the island, thinking the Beyonder was a guru of sorts.

Owen Reece eventually heard about this on the TV, and was worried about the Beyonder's new passion. He searched around the universe, and discovered Mephisto's plan, noting that he and the other cosmic beings were being very clever, and the Beyonder would never notice until it was too late. The question for him now was, should he tell the Beyonder? They had been friends, but now Reece was worried about how unstable he was becoming, and what he might do next. He was frozen in indecision.

However, the Beyonder was really just sitting and thinking. But when too many people started coming to his island, he began to wonder if he should move. This would have wrecked Mephisto's since he would have to recalibrate the machine. So he tricked the Thing, who was making a movie on a nearby island. He increased the Thing's power a hundredfold, then had him go attack the Beyonder, which would hopefully keep him in one place. (The Thing was angry at the Beyonder for various events in the past.) However, just as the Thing was ready to attack, the Legion Accursed arrived. The Thing realized he could just do nothing and let the Beyonder die at their hands, so he fought them. He single-handedly defeated them, including the Juggernaut. Because none of the Legion Accursed managed to touch the Beyonder, the Beyondersbane went past it's critical point and melted down, its energy returning eventually to the Beyonder. This act not only saved the Beyonder, it showed him something about human character. He realized that if the Thing could have doubts about his role, then it was OK for him to have doubts too. And even more so: he had helped the Thing eventually realize that he couldn't murder someone in cold blood, so perhaps the Beyonder's new role could be to help others find their roles! Meanwhile, Owen Reece, who had been watching events, was glad that he had not needed to step in and take action--or definitively decide not to take action. But he could tell that soon he would have to make a decision.

As part of his attempt to help others find peace, he visited the New Mutants. First he found Illyana. She attacked him with her Soul Sword, but it had no affect on him, and he took it from her (something no one else could do). Much earlier, he had created the Darkchilde aspect of her self; now he decided to take all the evil out of her, and leave only purity. He then sent her to "convert" the other New Mutants to his cause of purity and peace. She converted Sam Guthrie before he realized what she was doing, but the others rejected his "gift." Demons from Limbo attacked. The others were finally able to convince Magik that the Beyonder's gift wasn't right, that it took away their individuality and free thought. Unfortunately the only way to reject the Beyonder's purity--and to save Kitty Pryde, who was in the demon's clutches--was to re-accept her Darkchilde essence once more. She did, and the New Mutants were freed of the Beyonder's attempt at forced enlightenment.

Meanwhile, Thomas Fireheart, the Puma, was told by his tribe that it was his destiny to kill the Beyonder, who they said would bring about the end of the world. Fireheart didn't really believe this, but agreed to look into it, and looked up Spider-Man to help him. The Beyonder was sponsoring a cult of Cosmic Oneness, and the Puma believed that its director, Barry Foxxe, was the Beyonder. When he went to kill him, however, he couldn't go through with it, unable to believe that such an unassuming man was so all-powerful. (Spider-Man was watching, ready to stop him in any case.) However, when he talked to Foxxe, Foxxe told him that the Beyonder lived nearby, and gave him the address. The Puma found the Beyonder, and suddenly realized how powerful he was--unlike Foxxe, the Beyonder radiated power. The Beyonder, however, simply teleported Fireheart to Japan. The Puma visited his old sensei, Muramoto, while in Japan, and to his shock the Beyonder was there too--and he was friendly with Muramoto! The Beyonder and Muramoto had been having a number of conversations about enlightenment. The Puma was enraged at this, and swore he would kill him. Back in New York, Puma once again found Peter Parker and tried to enroll him in his quest to kill the Beyonder. The Beyonder appeared again, and tried to convince the Puma to be more like Parker, who knew his role in the scheme of things. To further prove his point, he made the elderly Muramoto appear, now dressed like a NYC punk; he was tired of his old life and wanted to start a band due to the Beyonder's influence. This only further inflamed Puma, but Beyonder left. Muramoto explained that this situation was the Beyonder's greatest challenge: he wanted to help people find their roles, but what if the Puma's role was to kill the Beyonder? In fact, the Beyonder was talking with Death, talking about this very thing, and admitted his fear of what would happen. Eventually, they all ended up at a punk club. Muramoto's new band was playing, and the Beyonder and Parker were watching. Puma was coming in, prepared to kill the Beyonder. Another man, Ralph Macchio (named after the writer and editor), was also there, and wanted to kill the Beyonder for his role in the death of his wife in an accident earlier. Macchio shot at the Beyonder, but Muramoto jumped in the way, dying. The Puma was now brought to the absolute limit of his anger and his sense of righteousness in his cause. He physically grew, and grew in power. As the Beyonder explained, "once the Puma fit exactly into his life's role...the universe aligned itself around him harmoniously! He is one with the universe! He has the power to kill even me!" (See Powers for a greater explanation of this.) However, Spider-Man stopped the Puma long enough for him to gain doubt in his role, and he lost his power, and was unable to hurt the Beyonder--a result that disappointed both the Puma and the Beyonder.

Offers Phoenix the power to kill him

Rachel Summers, meanwhile, had fully accepted the power of the Phoenix and decided to kill the Beyonder so as to keep him from hurting anyone else. She left a message for the X-Men and flew towards the west coast. He was peacefully sitting on Alcatraz, contemplating existence, when she blasted him with the full power of the Phoenix, creating an enormous mushroom cloud in the shape of a firebird. However, he was unharmed, and kept her power from having any effect on the area outside a patch of fused glass perhaps 40 feet in diameter. He brought her back to her time in the future, trying to talk her through her feelings of guilt and rage. Then, trying to teach her a lesson, he gave her an enormous amount of power--enough to kill him. She had a choice--kill him, or save the X-Men, whom he then put in danger, making the Blackbird plummet towards the sea, with Sentinels on the chase and spread throughout the city. She of course chose to save the X-Men, but when that was done, she furiously returned to him. He thought that the action would teach her that she was a hero and not a killer, but she just felt used like a puppet, and once again the Beyonder failed in his role of helping others find their own path.

Meanwhile, the Defenders were in a very difficult battle against the Dragon of the Moon. They managed to separate Heather Douglas, Moondragon, from her possession by the evil creature, and they fled together. Douglas was still weak, and the Dragon tried to prey on her mind and thus recombine them. It convinced her that if she had enough power, she could resist the Dragon's evil. It told her the Beyonder could give her that power. The Beyonder then appeared, and gave her what she asked for, then left. However, the Dragon was able to take her over anyway, and just took advantage of her extra power. She returned to the Defenders' compound and attacked them again. This time they were overwhelmed, and were only able to defeat the Dragon by sacrificing the life-force of Valkyrie, Andromeda, Manslaughter, and Interloper. Moondragon and Gargoyle also seemed to die in the conflagration. As they died, Moondragon left a psychic message with the others, saying that perhaps this result was the Beyonder's intent all along--that he knew they could only truly defeat the Dragon by forcing them to take this extra measure. So perhaps in this one case the Beyonder's meddling actually resulted in a net positive result (albeit with horrible side effects).

Origin

The Beyonder went back to Owen's apartment to talk over all of these recent problems. He was so angry that he unleashed a multiversally-destructive bolt of energy--which Reece then quietly fixed. Reece decided to take the role of a therapist with the Beyonder, since he himself was quite a veteran of therapy sessions. In order to talk about the Beyonder's formative moments (his "childhood"), they went to the Beyond-realm and the Beyonder showed him the pinhole that first showed him our universe. Looking in, they saw the accident that had transformed Reece into the Molecule Man! Since the Beyonder had no memories before the pinhole, the Molecule Man was in a sense responsible for the existence of the Beyonder. This fact did not please the One from Beyond. They then went through several other moments in his life on Earth, culminating in his attempt to teach others their roles, which ended with Puma attempting to kill him. The Beyonder came back from their therapy session even more angry than before, and was now determined to destroy all of existence. The Molecule Man begged him not to, and the Beyonder gave them a 24-hour reprieve.

Beyonder bursts Owie's bubble

He took a trip to soak up the good things about life on Earth. He spent the night with a waitress, but then caused a conflict with the X-Men after showing off his powers. Rachel attacked him with the Phoenix, but to no avail. The Molecule Man made a force field around Denver, hoping to protect them, but the Beyonder happened by and laughed as he effortlessly shattered the dome. As he did, he teased the Molecule Man, whose power exceeded everyone else's in the universe, as if he were a child, saying "Sorry to 'burst your bubble,' Owie, but if I want in, nothing can stop me--and you might as well know now!" The Beyonder then went to talk to the Hulk, and found that his Banner side had been erased. He was now "nothing but raging power personified! An infinity of powers--with no finite element inside! It's...ugly! Worse...it reminds me of someone." He clearly realized how he was himself acting like a child feeling the need to strike out. He next visited Peter Parker, of whom he said, "I like you better than anyone I've met!" He looked for more advice about life from Peter. Peter did his best to explain the way the finite length of time we have on earth affects the way we act, and the Beyonder eventually left, saying that he may have talked him out of obliterating existence. He was now ambushed by the New Mutants, but he brushed them aside.

Meanwhile, Marsha Rosenberg was getting Owen Reece ready for action: if the Beyonder showed up ready to destroy the universe, then she wanted him to show some spine and fight, not to try to find a way to hide. And if that didn't work, she had a backup plan. The Beyonder, after sitting and thinking, decided he had been wrong, and went to their apartment to apologize. But as soon as he stepped in the door, Reece blasted him with his full force. The Beyonder was knocked back, but not really hurt. He tried to explain, but Reece had made up his mind, and attacked again with a shot that "could've slagged several billion entire dimensions." And yet the Beyonder was once again unhurt. He raised his hand to attack back, but the Marsha put her reserve plan into action. She begged him to stop, and said she never loved Reece. She wanted him to take her, and just kill Reece. The Molecule Man was devastated, and the Beyonder lorded it over him. He left, once again putting the destruction of the universe on hold, fully realizing that it had all been an act on Rosenberg's part, but not caring, since Reece had been brought to despair in any case.

Ready to kill the New Mutants

In his rage, he went back to the New Mutants in New York. Angry at their rejection of his forced conversion earlier, he was intent upon their deaths. Dani Moonstar saw death visions above all her comrades, and knew what was about to happen. She ran away, and had another vision, this time of her grandfather, who recounted the conflict between the Cheyenne and the white settlers, and how the Cheyenne tried to face extermination with honor. When the Beyonder arrived, Magik offered herself up as a sacrifice in exchange for the lives of the others; the Beyonder disintegrated her with no regard for the deal. The other attacked, with no affect. He killed Karma by reflecting her power back at her. Warlock and Magma attacked with their full fury, Warlock's being especially powerful, and the Beyonder lay on the ground. However, he was just teasing out the battle to make them feel all the worse. He stood up and closed Magma and Cannonball in a crevasse. He disintegrated Warlock, Cypher, and Wolfsbane. Moonstar was the only one left. She flew towards the Beyonder on her flying horse and touched him on the chest, counting coup in the tradition of the Cheyenne warriors from whom she was descended, before he killed her as well. He then erased all memory of them from the universe.

Beyonder causes problems through his emotional states

He stood in space, thinking. His inner quandry reflected itself upon the nature of reality without him even trying, imploding suns and collapsing parallel universes. A fleet of alien starships, consisting of the might of thirty thousand races, attacked, using an "ultimate eradicator," which would destroy a thousand worlds in its aftershock. It hit him, and knocked him back one step. Then he effortlessly erased the armada, as well as all their homeworlds, and every planet that had ever had any contact with any of those worlds. Mephisto, observing, was at wit's end, and tried to come up with a plan, but the Beyonder suddenly appeared in his realm so he could destroy it as well. Mephisto convinced him to make a wager: if Mephisto won, the Beyonder would wait 24 hours before destroying everything. They would have a contest to see if humanity deserved life. The Beyonder would try to get a human (Peter Parker) to renounce his ideals, and Mephisto would try to keep him on the straight and narrow. The Beyonder decided to use Zarathos as his catspaw. They set up a situation where Spider-Man found out about a planned hit on the Kingpin--something he couldn't let happen, given his morality. Zarathos used all the power at his command to get Parker to go back on his sense of responsibility, using illusions of Norman Osborn, Captain Stacy, Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and his parents, as well as physical sickness, but Parker wouldn't give up, and managed to stop the hit. Impressed, the Beyonder kept his word and allowed existence to continue for another day.

Beyonder is not pleased with Doom

Doctor Doom, however, did not help matters. After a fight with the Fantastic Four, he revealed that his mind was actually inhabiting the body of a random stranger, Norm McArthur. His body had been destroyed in a battle with Terrax and the Silver Surfer, and he had transferred his mind to that of an onlooker. Now he wanted to recreate his original body. He called on various magical spirits, but none of them had the power to collect all the particles of his body, so he conjured the most powerful force in the universe, which turned out to be the Beyonder. The Beyonder was not in a mood to be trifled with, and was about to destroy Doom, whom he apparently didn't recognize, when Reed Richards stopped him. He said that this explained a great puzzle: Doom was dead and his body dispersed during Secret Wars I, so how was Doom there to steal the Beyonder's power, and why didn't he and the Beyonder recognize him? It turned out that the Secret Wars I-era Beyonder, sensing that Doom was dead in that time, brought him back from the current time and put this current Doom into place in the Secret Wars. Reed reasoned that if the Beyonder killed Doom, instead of sending him back in time, he would destroy the continuum of history, and perhaps not even the Beyonder could survive that. The Beyonder agreed to play it safe, and restored Doom to his original body (and Norm McArthur's mind back to his body), then sent him back in time to the beginning of Secret Wars I. (At the end of Secret Wars I, when the Beyonder seems to kill Doom, he actually sends him back to the "present" again.) The Beyonder then left.

Rachel attacking Beyonder with the power he gave her

Back in San Francisco, Rachel was only more determined to kill the Beyonder, and she still retained the power he had given her. She had a new idea--go to the M'Kraan Crystal, from which the Phoenix derived its power, and destroy it. This would destroy the universe as well, although a new universe would take it's place. She hoped that with the current universe destroyed, the Beyonder would lose interest in it, and would at least not destroy the future universe, whereas if he continued on his present course, he would probably destroy not only the current universe but any future ones as well. It was a desperate gamble, to say the least. The other X-Men, some willingly, some possibly under her psychic influence, and some unwillingly, joined their life forces to hers. They all traveled to the Crystal. Storm argued strongly against Rachel's plans, but she was going to do it anyway. She expanded her power across the universe, binding with all that she was going to destroy, and realized that each individual life had infinite worth, and that she had no right to take that away. She returned them all to Earth. Magneto agreed with her final choice, as he had earlier counselled mercy against the student who had tried to kill Xavier. Then the Beyonder appeared. He said that he had offered them a chance to go out with a bang--implying that the M'Kraan gambit had not really been Rachel's idea, but his--but they had flubbed it. Now, they had to fight, or die; they all meant less to him than an amoeba, other than perhaps Rachel, who he called a "starsoul." They argued, and Rachel returned the power he had given her. However, while he had expected that he could absorb it effortlessly, he could not: he "tries to turn away--only to learn he cannot. He tries to make Phoenix stop--but she will not. He sought his power, but this is far, far, more than even he can bear. All that Phoenix experienced--the totality of life, in all its forms, in all its infinite glory--is now his." In other words, the Beyonder learned the lesson that Phoenix learned about the infinite value of every individual life. Instead of seeing them all as amoebas, he was forced to see that they each contained an infinity of their own, which were perhaps equal to his own, other kind of infinity. He would have to think about all this.

The Final Battle

Cosmic beings explain Molecule Man's superior power.

The Beyonder went out into space again, contemplating existence. He wanted to erase everything so that he would no longer be reminded of the things that frustrated him so much. He went into an underground bunker to think it all out. Meanwhile, Rachel Summers teleported all the heroes of Earth to the Rockies, above his bunker. She wanted them all to engage him in one last ditch effort. She brought Rosenberg there for a moment to talk, but then sent her back to Owen. She entered the apartment in trepidation, and found it in ruins. Reece had been distraught, but had eventually come to terms with everything, and now felt stronger than ever. He was ready and willing to face the Beyonder once again. He teleported the two of them back to the heroes' site.

Millions of times more power than the rest of the multiverse combined

The Beyonder, meanwhile, was just trying to think through his problems. Perhaps there was another way to be fulfilled without destroying everything. He discussed how hard it was, since there really was no reality other than what he willed to be: "Cows don't have wings because I don't want them to!" But everything he had heard led him to believe that being partly mortal was the only way to make it through. He made a machine, since he was always find of gadgets, that would recreate him in mortal form. To test it, he had the machine recreate the New Mutants (whom he had killed earlier). Then he went through himself. He came out as a scrawny blonde man; his power was stored in a nearby vessel. He immediately felt time passing by in a blur, and couldn't take it--he plunged back in and restored his godlike state in which he had "millions of times more [energy] than all the rest of the power in the multiverse combined." But, as soon as he did it, he realized he needed to try it again. This time, after he was reborn, Mephisto showed up with a horde of demons, bent on destroying him. He made him feel as if he were being eaten by maggots, burned, and other tortures. The Beyonder knew it was all a magical illusion, however, and was able to reclaim his power again. He wanted to try again, but with a tweak that would allow him to keep his power, when the heroes readied their attack above. In order to stall them, he sent the New Mutants to attack them. The heroes stopped them, and the Molecule Man brought them all down to the Beyonder's base.

The two most powerful beings

He tried to explain what he was trying to do, but they wouldn't listen, so he knocked them all (including Rachel and the Silver Surfer) away with one swipe of his hand. The only one that was left was Reece. The One from Beyond asked him if this was how he really wanted it, and Reece said it was. They then engaged in an all-out battle which was felt by "every creature on every planet in every dimension." While Reece was not as strong as the Beyonder, he was able to hold him off until the other heroes regained consciousness. They tried to help him, but it was not enough, and this time the Beyonder swept Reece aside with all the others. He sent down an enormous blast of energy from the heavens that destroyed everything in its path...except that the Molecule Man had saved a bit of energy, and managed to not only save all the heroes, but also put every other living thing in the path of the blast into subspace. It took them a while to get up, however, and they had been knocked miles away.

Reece kills the Beyonder baby

In the meantime, the Beyonder went back into his machine. Taking his inspiration from Reece, he was going to be human and omnipotent at the same time. He started to grow inside the machine, and was a fetus when the heroes arrived back. The heroes argued over what to do: some thought they should kill him, while other could not stomach such a deed. However, it was finally the Beyonder's friend and inspiration, Owen Reece, who let go a lethal bolt of energy, killing the baby. A giant white burst of energy exploded out of the machine, and for a minute, it seemed as if all of the universe was destroyed anyway. But then the light receded, and one could see the Molecule Man shunting the energy out of our dimension. All was as it used to be. The heroes were subdued, but even Captain America agreed that Reece had done what needed to be done. Reece cryptically replied, "it's a happier ending than you know." For unknown to the others, the energy he had sent out of our world went back to the Beyond-realm, where it cooled like our own Big Bang. In time, it created planets and life. And so, as the narrative ended,"within the new universe begat by the Beyonder's power...mortal beings live their mortal lives...giving meaning to the infinity in which they dwell...thus, finally, is the desire of the One from Beyond...fulfilled!"

Secret Wars III?

The Beyonder as the sun of his new universe

Dr. Doom tricked the Fantastic Four into transporting him to the Negative Zone, and from there to the Beyond-realm. Once there, they (Doom, Thing, She-Thing, and the Human Torch) arrived, to their surprise, in a sunny, happy, populated land that recalled Earth. Doom understood what was going on, however, and called out to the Beyonder, and in an instant, his face appeared in the world's sun, threatening them with death. He couldn't believe the people of Earth were still "hounding" him. He appeared in his silvery armored form which he had once used in the Avengers.

The Beyonder was everything in this universe, just as seen in the end of Secret Wars II. However, while it was strongly implied in that story that he was no longer self-aware, and instead was simply the energy that had led to the natural evolution of the Beyond-universe, in this story he is able to separate his consciousness from the physical form of the realm, and has possibly been consciously manipulating the way the Beyond-universe evolved.

The Beyonder attacks them, but Doom persuades him that they are there to talk. Specifically, Doom wants his memories back. When the events of Secret Wars I took place, the mind of Earth 616's Doom was living in another man's body, so the Beyonder took a future Doom's mind and body back to our time and put him in the Secret Wars. He was, however, missing his memories of the time he spent in the other man's body. So Doom now asked the Beyonder to restore his memories. The Beyonder was about to do it, but then suddenly Kubik and the Shaper of Worlds appeared. They were both sentient Cosmic Cubes--Cosmic Cubes that had evolved into having self-awareness and personalities.

Kubik blasts Beyonder

They told the Beyonder not to grant Doom's wish, but he didn't listen, since he thought himself far above them in power and station. However, Kubik decided to prove him wrong, and battled the Beyonder to a standstill, to the Beyonder's great amazement. He couldn't understand how someone could stand up to him, since he was far more powerful than anyone in our dimension.

Then Owen Reece and Volcana showed up, and he added to Kubik's attack on the Beyonder. At one point in the battle, Kubik held the Beyonder's entire universe in his hand, and was about to crush it, when the Shaper stopped him. They explained to the Beyonder that Doom wanted his memories because he thought that with them, he would have been whole, and perhaps he would have been able to hold on to the power of the Beyonder during Secret Wars I.

Finally the Shaper and Kubik explained the origin of the Beyonder's and the Molecule Man's power. There is another dimension, where a race of incredibly powerful beings known as the Beyonders (plural) live and watch our universe. In many ways their motives are like a mix of the Watchers and the Celestials--over the eons of existence, they have observed and manipulated the evolution of life and intelligence in our dimension. According to the Shaper, they are beneficent in their motives. They often hire aliens from our universe to do their work for them. For instance, they hired the Nuwali to conduct experiments in evolution in the Savage Land. Later they created Cosmic Cubes. Each Cosmic Cube is a receptacle for energy that comes from their dimension. The Cubes are immensely powerful and can fulfill the wishes of their owners. These Cubes eventually develop and gain an intelligence and desires of their own. The Shaper developed from a Cube made by Skrull scientists. Kubik developed from a Cube made by A.I.M. scientists on Earth.

They then explained that the accident that gave Owen Reece the power of the Molecule Man opened a portal to the realm of the Beyonders (plural) and let some of that energy flow into him. The rest of the energy flowed into the empty Beyond-realm. It was this energy that the Beyonder (singular) was made of. Therefore, the Beyonder and Molecule Man both got their powers from the same energy; the Beyonder got the majority of it, and the Molecule Man got a smaller portion. The Beyonder's whole philosophical interest in the ways of desire came from a Cosmic Cube's innate desire to fulfill its owner's desires.

Beyonder and MM turn to Cosmic Cube

The Beyonder was not exactly excited to hear this, given his monumental ego, and argued vociferously against them, but in the end saw that it was true. He and Reece stepped together and melded into a true, perfect Cube--the one that their power had been meant to make so many years ago. The Cube then developed on its own over a period of time, and eventually expelled Reece's mind back to Earth. The Cube then took on a new body and persona, calling itself Kosmos. Kubik took on the job of teaching Kosmos about how to live a fulfilling life as a sentient Cube; the two began to fall in love. Kosmos eventually took on a different persona, the Maker, and was imprisoned in the Kyln. She was eventually put in a form of coma by Thanos, and eventually apparently killed during the events of Annihilation. Her persona as Kosmos is so different from her persona as the Beyonder that she has her own separate page in the Wiki, and her experiences are only described here as a summary.

However, there was one more appearance of the classic-looking male Beyonder after he turned into the female Kosmos. Owen Reece had been taken over by his "dark side," and turned back into a crazed Molecule Man. He then used his powers to pull the old male Beyonder essence out of Kosmos and brought him to Earth to fight. The Beyonder, who seemed somewhat amnesiatic or deluded, referred to himself as being more powerful than anyone else in existence, thus implying that in this persona, he did not remember, or did not fully process, the events of the Cosmic Cube retcon. He was once again dressed in his baroque silver armor. This time, however, in a contradiction with all previous encounters between the two, the Molecule Man proved to be the more powerful. Kubik showed up and explained that because he and the Beyonder/Kosmos were purely abstract containers of power, they did not contain the full degree of potential that Owen Reece, as a human, had. Stripped of their power, Kubik and Kosmos would not exist, while Reece would still exist. The good side of Reece finally won out, and returned the Beyonder persona and power to Kosmos. Kosmos and Kubik then departed as a couple.

Explanation

The Cosmic Cube retcon made the Beyonder and Molecule Man far less powerful than they were before. Before, the Beyonder had been far more powerful than our entire multiverse. The Molecule Man had been more powerful than anyone other than the Beyonder. Now they each had only part of the power of a sentient Cosmic Cube, entities that are still very powerful, but stand far below such entities as the Living Tribunal and Eternity, and even the Celestials. To explain the events of Secret Wars I and II that seemed to contradict this, Kubik explained that at least some of them had been illusions, created by the other cosmic entities.

The retcon does better explain the link between the Molecule Man and the Beyonder. In Secret Wars II, it was unclear exactly why the Molecule Man's accident opened a portal to the Beyond-realm, other than that it was of universal importance. In the retcon, they are directly related. It does also give some more background to the Beyonders (plural), which had existed in the past but had little explanation.

Kosmos Phase

After the Beyonder and the Molecule Man learned that their power derived from the dimension that created Cosmic Cubes, they merged themselves together into a new Cube. This Cube, as with the other Cosmic Cubes, continued to develop its own powers and self-awareness. Eventually it sent the Molecule Man's self back to Earth, and it turned into a new female humanoid being, Kosmos. This was surprising, since the Beyonder had chosen to appear in a male form. She later explained to Kubik (another sentient Cube like herself) that she felt that taking on the female form would obviate some of her previous problems, which had been partly derived from her male format.

Later on, Kubik and Kosmos became close. They continued to tour the multiverse together as Kubik taught Kosmos about existence. They were not above manipulation of beings that they saw as being "below" them: at one point the two of them created a moon-sized space station and ran the Fantastic Four through a series of exercises like lab rats. It was during one of these sessions that the Molecule Man, who had reverted to evil, pulled the old male Beyonder essence out of Kosmos, leaving her a pale unconscious shadow. The Molecule Man defeated the Beyonder, and Kubik showed up asking him to stop. Kubik said that he and Kosmos were pure power--that if their power was taken, they would be nothing. But the Molecule Man had greater power, because of his human potential. The Molecule Man was moved and restored Kosmos to her former state. He later said that even as he was a human who was learning to be omnipotent, they were omnipotents who were learning to be human.

The "Maker" Phase

Sometime later, due to unexplained events, Kosmos became mentally ill, and started calling herself the Maker. When she destroyed an entire Shi'ar settlement known as Eru 7, she caught the attention of the Imperial Guard. She did not put up a fight, and Oracle shut down her mind. She was found guilty and sentenced to the Kyln in Creche confinement.

Gladiator learned through Oracle, who had taken some of her madness, who the Maker really was. It seemed that Kosmos had tried to take an even more "mortal" form than before, perhaps somewhat similar to what the Beyonder was trying to do at the end of Secret Wars II. She was now bluish white, instead of gold. This extra degree of mortality appears to be what turned her insane. (It is unclear why Kubik did not help her.) Gladiator volunteered to be placed in the Kyln to keep an eye on her and destroy her if necessary. A riot at the Kyln set her free. She gathered a following of inmates who worshipped her. Gladiator and Starlord, among others, opposed the Maker and even gained the help of Thanos, who was visiting the Kyln on a pilgrimage.

When the Beyonder's personality resurfaced and drove her insane, Thanos was forced to shut her mind down and turn her into a living prison so that the Beyonder could never escape unless Kosmos was somehow killed. She was placed in stasis at the Kyln and kept alive so the Beyonder could not escape.

The Kyln prisons were destroyed during Annihilation, and the Maker was apparently killed in the battle; Thanos had the Fallen One check her body to make sure. (Since it was implied that her essence would escape if her body was killed, then it would seem that her essence should be on the loose, but this has never been dealt with or mentioned.)

Beyond!

The Beyonder apparently returned, reconstructed Battleworld and kidnapped several of Earth's heroes and villains again to conduct an experiment. Much like the original Secret Wars, the last man standing would receive his greatest desires. When Hank Pym appeared to slaughter all the other "contestants", one of Pym's desires was to know who was really orchestrating these events because he knew it wasn't the Beyonder. It was then revealed that Pym was correct and the entire experiment was being conducted by the Stranger under the guise of the Beyonder. Pym demanded that the Stranger stop these experiments and when he declined, it was revealed Pym hadn't killed any of the others and had merely shrunk them down. Pym then led them in an attack against the Stranger to force him to stop his Beyonder-inspired experiments.

The Mutant Inhuman Retcon

Professor X reveals the truth about the Beyonder's origin.

This flashback story took place after the events of Secret Wars I and before Secret Wars II. During a meeting of the Illuminati, Professor Charles Xavier relates new facts about the Secret Wars. After the Beyonder transported the heroes to Battleworld during the original Secret Wars, Xavier apparently toyed with the idea of shutting off the minds of all the assembled heroes and villains on Battleworld, save for his Illuminati team mate, Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr Fantastic. However, realizing that since the Beyonder had had the power to bring them there, he could also potentially destroy them all, and even kill off the entire human race in a fit of anger, the Professor refrained from following his original plan. At that exact moment, something strange occurred: Professor X sensed a strong presence nearby, which was mutant in nature. Reaching out to it, the Professor was overwhelmed, and found himself being pulled within the Beyonder’s consciousness. It was then that he realized that the Beyonder wasn’t the galactic entity of unknown origin that he presented himself to be. Instead, as the Beyonder projected an image of the Inhuman royal family image into the Professor’s mind, it became clear that the Beyonder, was, in fact, an Inhuman. This is known as the second retcon.

Professor X explained to his Illuminati colleagues that the Beyonder was not only an Inhuman, but a mutant Inhuman. Every Inhuman enters Terrigen Mists to gain the superhuman powers that the race is known for. But his genetic anomaly radically changed the Terrigen experience for him, and his power grew exponentially to an unprecedented scope. Asking for more information about him, the Illuminati sadly discovered that Black Bolt, the Inhuman leader, did not seem to remember the Beyonder prior to the Beyonder's elevation to nigh (?) omnipotent status. (Whether or not Black Bolt actually remembered him, or just didn't want to talk about it, is somewhat ambiguous. There are several meaningful glances and close-ups of Black Bolt's face at several points in the story that could be interpreted in different ways.) It turns out that Xavier had sensed, via his telepathy, that the Beyonder was once again in the vicinity. Mr. Fantastic was surprised, since he had had sensors targeting the Beyonder's energy signature, and they had not gone off. (This may be a sign that this whole story does not in fact deal with the Beyonder, but a doppelganger of some sort.) Xavier also revealed that Cerebro enabled him to track down the Beyonder’s signature to the dwarf planet Ceres, which is located within the asteroid belt of our solar system.

The Beyonder confronts the Illuminati.

Deciding to confront the Beyonder before became a viable threat once more, the Illuminati employed a Skrull ship and traveled to Ceres, only to find a hidden replica of the island of Manhattan in the middle of the asteroid belt. After landing on the top of a building, Reed saw the Beyonder down on the street, apparently arguing with Luke Cage and Iron Fist, with Spider-Man swinging by as well (this was a copy of the scene in Secret Wars II where he turns their building into gold). Dr Strange pointed out that there were no signs of true life force aura in proximity, indicating that those heroes were creations of the Beyonder himself, and that no matter how accurate they appeared to be, his designs lacked true free will and human spirit. Dispersing the forms of Cage and Iron Fist, the Beyonder teleported himself up to the Illuminati.

He was actually pleasantly surprised to see them there, despite being somewhat hesitant to accept their reality; at first he thought they might be creations of his own that he made himself forget in order to surprise himself. It was the sight of the imposing Black Bolt that made the Beyonder realize the Illuminati were not his creations.

The Beyonder bows to his King.

With utmost respect, he bowed down to Black Bolt, proving his loyalty to him. He then wanted know the reason of the Illuminati’s visit, and even directed his questions to his King, stating that his highly destructive voice would not cause anyone harm if he used it, due to his own powers containing it.

Then, the Illuminati tried to make the Beyonder understand that his very existence was an upset to the natural order of things, explained his origin to him, and requested that he abandon the Universe, at once. (The Illuminati used some very specious logic in trying to argue that he was disrupting the natural order of things. As the Beyonder himself replied, "But I'm part of the universe's natural order. The universe created me just as it created you." They then said that this was not true, because he was created by his mutant gene, as if that were not natural. If this were so, then no mutant would be "natural." This is also a bit odd in relation to the Beyonder's various origins. In his original origin, and in the Cosmic Cube origin, he would in fact he from another universe, and thus "unnatural" in ours. However, only in this new origin is the Beyonder in fact from our universe, and thus in fact natural.)

Temptation

Some other odd comments were made. The Beyonder asked Black Bolt why he was still alive after all this time, seemingly meaning that it had been an extremely long time since Black Bolt had been king, and thus that the Beyonder was perhaps in or from some other time line. He either could or would not answer how long it had been since he had last seen Black Bolt. The Beyonder then explained that his only intention was to do good, and that to him, nothing was impossible to accomplish. He could even reshape the world in the hidden thoughts of the Illuminati, if only they wished it to be so. The Illuminati then went through several imaginary situations reflecting what would happen if their inner desires came true.

The Beyonder's departure.

Angrily, Namor, speaking on Black Bolt's behalf, demanded that the Beyonder behave as he should, obey his King’s wishes, and leave the Universe, never to return. There is a short series of ambiguous flashbacks that seem to show the Beyonder walking into the Terrigen Mists. Saddened, and still hesitant, the Beyonder finally complied with the Illuminati’s wishes and left Ceres, his corporeal form turning to dust. Immediately after the Beyonder’s departure, all his creations began to crumble and fall apart. The Illuminati departed, having succeeded their in goal. Dr. Strange and Professor X no longer sense the Beyonder's presence. Professor X, reading Black Bolt's mind, tells the others that Black Bolt still has no recollection of the Beyonder as an Inhuman; since he is reading his mind, it seems probably, although not completely sure, that this is true. However, after they speed away, the Beyonder and his model of Manhattan reappear, and he goes back to whatever he was doing before.

There are several odd things about this story. First, it is unclear when it takes place. Clearly it takes place after Secret Wars I, and since Richards mentions that he was scanning for the Beyonder since Battleworld (and doesn't mention anything from Secret Wars II), it seems likely that it takes place before Secret Wars II. Also, Namor has no recollection of him, and he had met him during Secret Wars II. The fact that this story takes place before Secret Wars II is also interesting because all the events the Beyonder "recreates" on his false Manhattan are then from his future. He is in essence foreshadowing what is going to happen before it happens. Why he would do this is unclear. This, in conjunction with the fact that he thinks Black Bolt died long ago raises the possibility that he is actually coming from a future timeline somehow. Also, Mr. Fantastic was unable to register the Beyonder's presence through his sensors, but Professor X could. It is unclear whether Black Bolt did or did not remember the Beyonder. All these add up to the possibility that this was not the true Beyonder, or was only a ploy by the Beyonder to confuse the heroes for some reason. It also is problematic in relation to Molecule Man, since before this their origins were tied. If the Beyonder got his power from the Terrigen Mists, where did the Molecule Man get his power? This retcon is also less perfect as a storytelling device than the Cosmic Cube retcon because while the Cosmic Cube retcon reinterpreted many events, those events did at least happen. If the mutant Inhuman origin is true, then how do we interpret the several issues dedicated to the Cosmic Cube origin of the Beyonder? Ultimately, this story has not been referenced in other stories since it was published, so it may or may not become canon.

During the Dark Reign, the Molecule Man created a group of beings that resembled the Beyonder, Mephisto, Dormammu, and Enchantress. None of them appeared to have much power, and were in fact simply illusionary "friends" the Molecule Man made for himself. They disappeared after Molecule Man was destroyed by the Void.

Intelligencia Retcon

During the Fall of the Hulks, the Intelligencia reported that long ago, they used a special tachyon beam, based at Doom's castle, to search for power sources in the cosmos. They found the Beyonder and their tachyon beam attracted his attention. It is unclear whether this was at the beginning of Secret Wars I (attracting him to our universe for the first time) or at the beginning of Secret Wars II (attracting him to come to Earth). In classic continuity, the thing that attracted his attention in both instances was the presence of the Molecule Man.

Clarifications

With regards to the two retcons, when Marvel re-assessed Secret Wars and Secret Wars II for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe in 2011, they cleared up the Beyonder's nature some what. As it turns out, the Beyonder isn't an Inhuman mutant or a Cosmic cube, but rather, because of his power, if he says he is those things - then he is. Rather than be derived from a Cosmic cube or a mutant Inhuman originally, if he wishes to be or for people to think he is either of those things or anything else, then with regards to his power, then he is those things.

Powers and Abilities

Here is an explantion of the Beyonder's powers and power shifts as a result of the rectonned storylines.

Pre-Retcon Beyonder/Classic Beyonder- As a result of being the entirety of a dimension of far more scope than our own multiverse, he was more powerful than all of the rest of reality (he was described in narration as having "millions" of time more power than all the power in our multiverse combined). He had the power to achieve whatever he pleased. The Beyonder was going to erase the multiverse entirely; he erased Death; he destroyed multiple galaxies; he defeated powerful beings like Galactus and a whole group of Celestials with ease; he was able to recreate the same things he erased; with a simple hand wave he shattered a dome the Molecule Man created to endure multiversal destruction; he easily survived a blast from the Molecule Man that could have slagged "several billion" dimensions; when he had a large portion of his power in the cup that was going to kill Death, he still had more power than the combined cosmic entities of our multiverse; when Mephisto created Beyondersbane using the Beyonder's own expended power plus all of the power in our multiverse, Mephisto still wasn't sure it was enough to destroy him; his battle with the Molecule Man affected every being on every planet on every dimension. Also, his power is ultipotence(omnipotence without omniscience).

However, he did have certain circumstances where he felt there was a chance for someone or something to defeat him. At one point when he wanted to die, he was going to let the Thing kill him (or at least his body) by intentionally not healing himself. He said that when he was drunk, Dr. Strange could have trapped him in a pocket dimension and kept him inebriated; he said Rachel Summers, as Phoenix, almost had a chance to defeat him when he gave her some extra power; he said that Puma, under a mystic universal alignment of power, could have killed him; he said that the heroes in the final battle against him almost had a chance (due to the involvement of the Molecule Man); it is possible that Beyondersbane would have worked. However, most of these were either due to his own self-limiting of power or some other kind of special circumstances. In no situation was anyone ever actually more powerful than him. In the case of the Puma, he had the power of the entire universe behind him, but the Beyonder was more powerful than our entire universe, so in terms of direct power, it shouldn't have been enough. However, there are cases in the normal world where a weaker object can break a stronger object if it hits it in exactly the right way--for instance it can set up dissonant shock waves that are a counter to the other object's structure, and force it to break itself apart. This must be a similar to the situation with Puma. On the other hand, the Black Knight's Ebony Blade, and Magik's Soul Sword, which normally can cut through magic, had no effect on him at all. This version is considered to be Omnipotent. Writers later on depowered The Beyonder, which resulted with other versions. Marvel had two God's, then changed to the One Above All as one God.

Post Retcon Beyonder #1 (Cosmic Cube)- Beyonder was a cosmic cube, created by beings called Beyonders, without a container. He invented, and was sometimes manipulated by other cosmic entities into believing, the events of the original Secret Wars as a way to cope with cosmic awareness. While this version of the Beyonder wasn't as powerful as the original Pre-Retcon Beyonder, he shares the same feats, this is because because beings of higher power allowed him too. An example being when the Celestials lost to Beyonder; in the revised story line they wanted to observe his actions. The dome (as powerful as the multiverse) Molecule Man created, which the Beyonder shattered, wasn't as powerful as the original. In 1984, the multiverse was all the dimensions in Marvel comics, and now it's only the universes that spring from a common timeline (Earth 616, Earth 1610, etc.). So while his feats existed, they don't share the original magnitude of Pre-Retcon Beyonder's actions. He was still quite powerful but didn't compare to the likes of Eternity and the Living Tribunal. He still had comic awareness and reality warping capabilities. Other sentient cosmic cubes have been able to manipulate or affect reality on a fairly extensive basis, creating planets (Kubik) and destroying civilizations (Shaper). In his battle with Owen Reece, after he had transformed into Kosmos but Reece reverted him into his old Beyonder form, their battle affected distant galaxies, distant time periods, and other dimensions.

As Kosmos, the Beyonder did not use her powers much. However, it can be inferred that her powers were more or less on the level of other sentient Cosmic Cubes like Kubik and the Shaper of Worlds, which are in essence limited omnipotents. In her battle with Molecule Man, the effects of their battle affected distant times, dimensions, and galaxies.

However, in her Maker persona, her powers were vastly more limited, perhaps due to her incarnation in a more mortal body. She lost a psychic battle with Thanos, although this was at least partly due to her naivete in the ways of battle. Still, Gladiator called her (perhaps with typical comics hyperbole) "the most powerful being in the known universe" even in this stage of her existence.

Post Retcon Beyonder #2/Current Beyonder (Mutant Inhuman)- Beyonder was a mutant Inhuman who already had unspecified powers, then entered the Terrigen Mists and had those powers increased exponentially. It is unclear whether his power under this retcon is greater of lesser than the Cosmic Cube version of the Beyonder, or if it is even at the level of Pre-Retcon Beyonder. He was able to create a replica of Manhattan, including its normal and super-powered citizens, a feat that would certainly fall within the power of a sentient Cosmic Cube.Post Retcon Beyonder has reality warping powers, but not as powerful as other versions.Either he is holding back, or just his limitation. Remains to be seen. Beyonder has Hulk level strength, cellular replication, super durability, and superhuman intelligence. Along with his reality altering powers.This version is Nigh-Omnipotent.

Alternate Earths

Earth-691

In this reality, the Secret Wars never happened. The Beyonder was alerted to this universe when Bubonicus created a wound in Eternity. The Beyonder found his way in and met with Major Victory, giving him a new costume and telling him he had great power inside of him. He also showed him that he had kidnapped Protege and Malevolence, holding them in a miniature crystal as a source of amusement. Victory tried to warn the Beyonder of his target of amusement but the Beyonder would not listen, and brought them back to his universe (the Beyond-realm attached to that reality).

But Malevolence's father, Mephisto, followed. He freed Protege, who had the power to copy any power he witnessed. Still cocky, the Beyonder tried to defeat Protege, but Protege's powers continued to grow until it was more than the Beyonder could handle. He called the Guardians of the Galaxy to him, but it was too late. Protege's great raise in power gained the attention of the Living Tribunal, who put both Protege and the Beyonder on trial. The Beyonder was very apprehensive of the power of the Tribunal, Eternity, and Scathan the Celestial, but he joined Protege in fighting them. The Beyonder also empowered the Guardians to help in the assault.

Protege tried to copy all of their powers and become the new One Above All. In the end, Protege was defeated by the Tribunal and Scathan. For his recklessness, the Beyonder was punished, although very leniently: the Living Tribunal exiled him and forced him to remain in his own universe, where he once again was bored with life, because everything was just him. However, he was still able to observe, and potentially manipulate, the Guardians' universe through the costume he gave to Vance Astro.

Earth-1298

Earth-1298 Beyonder imprisoned in the center of the Earth

In Earth-1298, also known as the Mutant X universe, the Beyonder was defeated by a coalition of heroes at the end of Secret Wars II. They imprisoned his dormant body in the center of the Earth.

He was awakened by an enormous release of power during a battle between the Earth-616 Havok, who had been transported to this universe some time ago, and the psychotic Earth-1298 Captain America, who was also an energy-wielding powerhouse.

The Beyonder then pulled the body of Captain America down underground and absorbed his memories. He learned about Havok and became obsessed with him, although he wasn't sure why: he just had a subconscious feeling that he need to find him. First, however, it was time for revenge. He caused enormous natural catastrophes all around the globe, causing havoc. Then, flitting from emotion to emotion, he stopped it all, and began his search for Alex Summers. The people of Earth began to worship him for calming the catastrophes, not realizing he had started them in the first place. Then several of Earth's heroes found him and attacked. He quickly dispatched them with a nuclear-style explosion.

Earth-1298 Beyonder searches for Havok

Surprisingly, he was unable to use his power to find Havok directly, and so he tried to telepathically search the minds of many of the humans around him. He lifted them into the sky and looked through their minds, but couldn't find anything, so he just dropped them to their deaths. This version of the Beyonder was not to be trifled with: he had little of the sense of wonder and respect for human life that the 616-Beyonder at least occasionally possessed.

Summers, meanwhile, was in a coma due to a bite from Dracula, and was under the care of that world's X-Men. Dr. Strange found them and said that Summers was the key to saving them from the Beyonder. Strange warned that the Beyonder was going to destroy all the multiverses. He summoned many heroes to defend the unconscious Havok, but the Beyonder killed them all with a wave of his hand. More heroes arrived, but the Beyonder continued to mow them down. Still he could not find Havok.

Havok finally awoke. Dr. Strange was protecting the area with a mystic shield, and the Beyonder was pounding on it, trying to get in. Strange explained that when Havok destroyed the site of the Nexus of All Realities in that dimension, he had then absorbed the Nexus into his own body. He was now the gateway between all realities, and if the Beyonder got hold of him, h would have access to the Nexus. Strange and Havok teleport away, and the Beyonder finds Dracula. Dracula offers his assistance in return for getting to kill more heroes. The Beyonder accepts. More heroes attack, and the Beyonder lets Dracula drain their lives and powers away.

Strange finally tells Havok the final secret: this is not really the Beyonder. Or more specifically, it is the Beyonder's body and essence, but they have been possessed by the Goblin Queen. The Beyonder was not only imprisoned at the end of the Secret Wars, he was destroyed. She found his essence and took it over. This explains his different personality and moral character, why his power level is so different, and why he is so obsessed with Havok.

Dracula finally brings the Beyonder/Goblin Queen to Havok's location, and Havok comes out and attacks, buoyed by the power of several mystics and other characters. The Beyonder finally changes "his" appearance and reveals "himself" as Madelyne Pryor. They battle, and using his power, the power of the Nexus, and the power of the mystics, Havok defeats her, absorbing her into the fabric of the Nexus itself.

Earth-5202

The Beyonder of this reality was annihilated by The Council of Reeds using a dangerous and powerful weapon called Sol's Anvil.

Other Media

Animation

This Beyonder claimed to be "one from beyond." This would probably suggest he was from a different universe. He showed some power limitations in the season finally when it was shown that he was becoming powerless the longer he was outside his realm. Madame Web said "It was too large of a strain on his powers." Beyonder showed the ability to teleport himself and others, forward time over one place without causing a chain reaction over the rest of the universe. He showed that he could change his physical form and erase the memory of others. Through Doom it was shown that a fraction of his power could listen to conversation from several miles away and use telekenises to drop a large mountain on our heros. Beyonder displayed the ability to control others without them knowing it even while being absorbed.

Spider Man Secret Wars

The Beyonder actually made an appearance in Spider-Man the animated series.

Chapter 1"Arrival" In this episode we find Spider-Man floating around as he is told by Madame Web to look into her eyes, she then paralyzes Spider-Man into an upright posture. He begins to float and is met by two yellow eyes. These eyes take the form of the Beyonder. Spider-Man unaware of Beyonder's great cosmic powers, attemps to attack the Beyonder. The Beyonder simpily turns intangiable and proceeds to explain his plans to Spider-Man. Beyonder tells Spider-Man to think of him and his assistant, Madame Web, as 'ones from beyond.' They traveled across the universe as observerers, and as they came to Earth they learned many new concepts,the most interesting were the concepts of good and evil. The Beyonder intended to see which one was stronger. Outraged Spider-Man told the Beyonder he could not do this and attacked only to jump right through him. The Beyonder then argues that he can do this and introduces a planet Spider-Man might consider a "paradise", civilizations have good but no concept of evil. The inhabitatants have worked hard to eliminate diseases and famine. The Beyonder then says he will introduce evil to the planet; he teleports Doctor Octopus, Alistar Smythe, the Lizard, the Red Skull, and Doctor Victor Von Doom to this planet. He accelerates the time of this planet 1 year into the future.

The Beyonder now shows Spider-Man the villains have caused destruction across the entire planet and have formed territories for themselves to individually rule over.

The Beyonder then teleports Spider-Man to the planet and introduces him to a device that will allow him to transport a small quantity of Earth's heros to the planet. He chooses the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, and Storm to fight along side him. These heros try to understand where they are and how they got there, the Human Torch and the Thing attack Spider-Man, thinking he was their enemy, the others heros try to break everything up. As everything settles down the Lizard suddenly attacks Spider-Man. The heros attempt to stop the assult and don't suceed until Iron Man fires a laser to knock the Lizard out.

Spider-Man then trys to tell the heros that this wasn't the Lizard's fault. As everything once again settles down, Spider-Man explains how all this occured.

The Lizard regained conscienceness and ran outside where he was attacked by alien giant sand worms. Sue Richards provides a barrier until Storm is able to use her weather manipulation to recharge the bases defense mechanism.

As the Lizard is knocked out once again,the heros place his body on a table.Mr. Fantastic attempts to unlock the alter ego of the Lizard. Mr.Fantastic suceeds and Dr. Curt Conners takes the dominant consciousness. Spider-Man then tells the Lizard the whole situation, convincing the Lizard to fight along side the rest of the heros.

At the very same moment Beyonder and Madame Web observe the whole situation. Madame Web comments on how Spider-Man has already led the heros into battle, and the Beyonder agrees that this is a good start, but he decides to see how everything ends. Chapter 2 "The Gauntlet of the Red Skull" Spider-Man and the present others decide to use the remaining energy of the device initially used to recruit heros to teleport Black Cat (at the time she was assisting Blade and Morbius the Living Vampire in a battle with Mirium, Blade's mother.) as a help to the upcoming war. Spider-Man informs her of the situtation. Storm then informs Spider-Man over a computer that she is with an alien rebel army led by General Torg. These rebels plan on assulting the Red Skull's base.

Meanwhile, we find out that Doctor Octopus has joined forces with the Red Skull since Dr. Doom has taken over Octavia, the kingdom of Doctor Octopus.The Red Skull assures Dr. Octopus that he will have his kingdom once again, but only if he agrees to enhance the Cyber Skull built by Smythe. Doctor Octopus agree to these terms and begins working.

While all the heros make their trek to the Red Skull's base they take a hovercraft to cross the desert,a sandstorm causes the hovercraft to come to a stop and crash due to it's overwhelming force. Captain America asks Black Cat how she became a hero, she replies by telling the Captain that her father was under the employment of the Red Skull, this was because the Red Skull claimed to be working for the Allies in order to spy on the Nazis. While he was under Red Skull's employment he created and memorized a super human transformation formula (this would be responsible for Steve Rogers becoming Captain America.) When Black Cat's father returned to the Red Skull he relized that he had been tricked into serving the evil intentions of the villian. Felicia's father disappeared for several years.Later, the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, captured Felicia and agreed to keep her free of harm if her father gave Kingpin the formula,the agreement was made and Kingpin received the formula. In order to see if it was the correct formula Felicia Hardy was used as a test subject and became the Black Cat. Spider-Man shows a bit of envy as he witnesses the new found connection between Black Cat and the Captain.

Iron Man's suit later ran out of power, the Lizard states he can fix this within one hour. Spider-Man is contacted and is informed that the rebels are getting impatient and are in need of assistance while fighting cyber skulls. The Lizard fixes Iron Man suit to the point where he is capable of doing minor tasks.

As everyone arrives to the base, Spider-Man and the heros defeat the cyber skulls and fight the villains. The Red Skull and Doctor Octopus escape while Black Cat chases after. Allistar Smythe stays behind, Smythe agrees to help Spider-Man. As Black Cat chases after the Red Skull she confronts him, but is captured by Dr. Octopus. She is saved by Spider-Man and Captain America, this allows the villians to escape.

Black Cat later thanks Spider-Man with a kiss, meanwhile on Earth, Blade watches his mothers castle from a distant ledge while Morbius explains that he has connection with Black Cat and knows she is in safe hands.

Chapter 3 "Doom" Spider-Man and the Lizard walking through a desert and are on their way to the kingdom of Doctor Victor Von Doom; they had been given coordinates by the Fantastic Four as to where they will all meet. large insect like robots had been hidden in the desert sands assault the two,but are quickly defeated. They eventually find the Fantastic... Three? Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, inform Spider-Man and the Lizard that they were flying in a hovercraft at low altitudes to avoid being detected. To thier dismay, Dr. Dooms robots attacked them, causing the hovercraft to crash, as the four began the fight,Thing was captured and taken away immediately.

Spider-Man, Lizard, and the Fantastic Three make their way to Dr. Dooms kingdom. Spider-Man takes notes on his tape recorder and makes a pun "I feel doom hiding behind every corner." As everyone enters the kingdom they see that it is an ideal society, the planets inhabitants are at peace. While they walk around they are invited to Dr. Dooms castle.

When they arrive, they see a mysterious figure approaching, Ben Grimm (Thing) has been restored to his original human body. Ben informs everyone that Doom created a device to seperate powers, he can transform into the Thing at will. Dr. Doom arrives and claims that he only wants Ben and his subjects to be happy; he calls his new kingdom New Latveria. Doom asks all the heros to live in his kingdom, and Reed Richards accuses Doom of only wanting praise and servitude. Reed attacks Doom, the other heros aid Reed while Ben asks them to hold their assault. The heros are quickly held captive by Doombots. Doom informs the heros that they will be held trail for treason,if they are found guilty they will be executed.

Later, Dr. Doom asks Ben how everyone was brought to this world; Ben said he will tell him if Doom releases the heros. Ben explains that they were all brought here by some being called the Beyonder. He wished to see who was more powerful in a planetary scale battle of good and evil.

Doctor Doom explains when the villains were being transported through space he traced the coordinates of the power being used to transport them from a lab. He insists than Ben must take him to this lab. When they arrive the giant sand worms attack, but they are easily thwarted off by Doom's robot. Ben points out the machine Spider-Man used to bring the heros to this world, and Doom uses this device to teleport.

He arrives at the Beyonders location and uses his power seperator (elemental splitter) in a reversed fashion. He fuses himself with the Beyonder. He teleports back to the lab and explains to Ben that he had gotten back simpily by willing it, and he had absorbed the Beyonder's power. Doom sets the heros free and teleports the villains to Earth; he invites the remaining to be his guests.

Unfortunately, the Lizard's primal instincts kick in, and Doom is assaulted. Spider-Man tries to stop this, but Doom had already sent a portal going toawrds the heros; this portal teleported all the heros (with the exception of Ben) to a distant location. As everyone figures out that they have been teleported several miles away, Johnny Storm asks what Doom will do next. He sarcastically says "What's he going to do drop a mountain on us?". Doom proceeds to drop a mountain on them. The heros manage their way out and start their journy back to New Latveria.

Meanwhile, Ben explores the castle as Doom sleeps. Strange creatures come from a vortex and fly towards Ben. He transforms into the Thing to fight them off. Spider-Man and the heros arrive. Doom is awaken and is shown the creatures he created while he was sleeping. Doom insists he can simpily will them away, but his powers have no effect. Spider-Man continues and informs Doom that these creatures are a result of his troubled mind; the Thing warns Doom that his lack of control over the Beyonder's power will kill him from the inside.

Doom, angred, accuses Spider-Man and the Thing of being simpletons. He claims that through the Beyonder's power he had had attained the only thing he wanted in life, total control. Doom uses his powers to force Spider-Man and the heros against a wall. As he is about to wipe them out,Thing grabs the elemental spiltter and fires it at Doom. The Beyonder and Doom, are now seperated. Beyonder claims that the war is over and teleports everyone to space. The Beyonder informs everyone that they will be teleported back to Earth with no memory of these events and will be as they were before this ever occured. Thing breifly shows disappointment as he will be stuck in his non-human form. Every hero with the exception of Spider-Man is teleported back to Earth.

Spider-Man addresses the Beyonder saying that he must of control over Doom all along, and he only allowed Doom to believe he had the full power of the Beyonder. If Doom truly had Beyonder's power all the heros would have been wiped out with a mere thought. Beyonder says Spider-Man is "quite correct". Beyonder informs Spider-Man he needed to make sure that he was a capable leader of "the real task at hand." Beyonder transforms into a cloud and both the Beyonder and Spider-Man vanish.

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